The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron

The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, Marshall of France is a Jacobean tragedy by George Chapman, a two-part play or double play first performed and published in 1608. It tells the story of Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron, executed for treason in 1602.

The two plays that comprise the larger work, The Conspiracy of Byron and The Tragedy of Byron, can also be described as "contemporary history;" they form the second and third installments in a series of dramas that Chapman wrote on French politics and history in his time, from Bussy D'Ambois through The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France.

In all likelihood, Chapman composed both parts of Byron in 1607-8; his primary source on the political events portrayed in the plays, Edward Grimeston's A General Inventory of the History of France, was first published in 1607. The plays were first acted by the Children of the Chapel (by 1608 known as the Children of the Blackfriars), one of the troupes of boy actors popular in the first decade of the 17th century.

The original production offended the French Ambassador to the Court of King James I, Antoine Lefèvre de la Boderie, who complained to the King. The Ambassador was particularly irritated by a scene in which the French Queen slapped the face of her husband's mistress (a scene that was censored out of the printed texts of the plays).

The plays were duly suppressed; but when the Court left London in the summer, the boys performed the plays again, in their original versions with the offending material included. James was incensed when he learned of this, and swore that he would punish the players severely. He stopped all dramatic performances in London for a time; three of the Children of the Blackfriars were sent to prison, and the troupe was ejected from the Blackfriars Theatre. (In a surviving letter to George Buc, the Master of the Revels, Chapman blames the actors for playing a scene that Buc himself had previously censored from the plays.) Fortunately, James's passion for drama got the better of his anger; the boys were eventually forgiven, and even performed at Court in the ensuing Christmas season.

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